ABUJA: Nigeria wants Royal Dutch Shell to reopen one of its main pipelines but the oil multinational is resisting, analysts say, for fear it could once again be bombed by militants.
The Trans Forcados Pipeline, the main feed to the 400,000-barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal, has been shut for all but three weeks of the past year, Lagos-based SBM Intelligence said in its weekly risk analysis published Friday.
In their most sophisticated attack, militants used divers to blow up an underwater section of the pipeline in the Atlantic a year ago. Defying militant death threats, Shell flew in underwater engineers who took seven months to get the pipeline operational.
Two days later, the militants bombed it again.
Shell Nigeria lost $3 billion during the seven months of repairs, Africa Confidential newsletter estimated at the time.
Petroleum Minister Ibe Kachikwu announced last month that Nigeria, one of Africa’s top oil producers, lost between $50 billion and $100 billion in oil revenues because of militant attacks last year. At the worst point, he said, production was cut to 1.2 million barrels a day — a loss of 1 million barrels a day and the lowest rate of production in 30 years.
The Forcados terminal handles nearly one-quarter of Nigeria’s exports. So experts are puzzled by the state oil company’s declaration this week that production has risen to 2.1 million barrels a day — near optimal production of 2.2 million.
Nigeria lost its place as Africa’s biggest oil producer last year, to Angola.
